Berhampur: A thatched rickety structure housing just an open veranda and a tiny room is home to Rajendra Mallick's six-member family.

Heavy rain has made the veranda's mud floor slushy. The entrance is low and it is difficult to get inside in an upright manner. The family hangs clothes from ropes tied to the roof to dry. A door at the end of the veranda leads to a tiny room where the family stores all their "valuables". The tiny room doubles as a kitchen.

Rajendra lives with his wife, three children, and 70-year-old mother at Matiapalli village in Bomkei panchayat of Ganjam district. The village is located just 12km away from the block headquarters and 42km from Berhampur.

When asked how they managed to squeeze into such a tiny space, Rajendra said: "We make partition room with saris at night." Rajendra, a skilled craftsman who makes bamboo products, never had the opportunity to improve the situation. Unemployment and illiteracy have enveloped their lives for years now.

Drinking water shortage is a perennial problem and the government is yet to address the issue. The only well in the village has dried up and the tube well has been lying defunct for the past two years. The women of the village fetch water from a stream nearly 500m away. Despite regular confrontations with elephants, bear and other wild animals, the villagers brave the terrain as it is the nearest source of freshwater.

Twelve families in the village all face these problems. Though their main source of income is through the sale of bamboo products, they don't make much profit as businessmen from outside come and purchase these products at throwaway prices.

"We earn Rs 1,000 per month at the most and we have to manage with this meagre income," said Bapi Pradhan, who unsuccessfully contested the last panchayat election as a committee member without the support of any political party.

"There is no patta (record of land rights) for our houses where we have lived for generations. We don't event have ration cards. The village does not have electricity despite electric poles being erected. Drinking water shortage is a perennial problem," said Rabindra Mallick, another villager.

"When the sun sets, we shut ourselves at home and prefer to stay indoors for fear of wild animals," he said.

Despite all these odds, about 25 children of the village go to the nearest Upper Primary School at Sindhukhali.

Tikina Mallick, a student of Class-IX at Parvati Amla Girls' High School at Bomkei, is the most educated in the entire village. Each day, she walks the 2km distance from her home to her school. "Me and all the students face problems. We cannot study in the evenings as there is no electricity in our village," said Tikina.

Digapahandi Block Development Officer Pratap Chandra Pradhan, when contacted, said: "First of all, I will locate the village and see what steps I can take to solve the problems of the villagers."